As you may have guessed from the title of this post I am now in New Zealand, but first we'll cover getting here...
As it turns out the Marree experience was not for me. The landscape, stars, and other backpackers there were great but for mainly work-related reasons my time there was quite probably the worst six weeks I've had since leaving home nearly a year ago (just a few days until the anniversary!). I don't usually like to include all of the downsides of travelling here as it is simply a less interesting and a bit of a downer, but I do feel that sometimes it is important to mention that they are in fact very real. Travel is not always as picturesque as it's made out to be. Overall I am absolutely having a great experience but that doesn't mean that every moment is easy.
That being said, Marree did bring adventures. It is the last stop on sealed road and two dirt tracks split off from it. On one of our days off Ben and I headed off down one of the tracks to visit a hot spring. Sadly all too soon we had our first flat tire and seeing as there was still a ways to go and I only had one spare we decided it was best to just turn around, instead visiting some ruins and a statue of the Marree Man. Even more sadly, as we turned around after changing the tire and set off again a ute passed us, kicking up a rock that chipped the windscreen. It turned out to be a nice afternoon but it was a rough morning for the Subaru. Other favorite activities in Marree included driving out onto the track until we lost site of town to watch the sunset or stargaze, playing tennis, and many games of Uno and Exploding Kittens.
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| The vast nothingness in which Marree exists |
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| A rousing game of Uno with the other lovely weirdos in Marree |
After leaving Marree Ben and I had one week before we needed to be in Sydney for our flight. The first day we headed south to the Flinder's Ranges intending to go on a brief hike and find somewhere to camp for the night. Instead we spent several hours driving through the park unable to find a single trailhead (personally I believe their signage was rather subpar) and moving slowly because of the rough and hilly terrain of the track. As a fairly new manual driver that was the most stressful driving I've done thus far. It was also incredibly windy and warm so we did zero hiking and settled on a relaxing night at the park's campground.
Day two of our travels took us much further south and onto the Yorke Peninsula. We had an early night, enjoying a hot bowl of soup and a game of cards at our oceanside campsite on a very cool and breezy night. The next day we got up early to watch the sunrise as we packed up and made breakfast. Then we headed off on a big day of driving, making it to the Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney sometime after midnight. We stayed several nights at this campsite, Blackheath Glen Reserve. During the day we hiked several trails in the Blue Mountains and had our first bath in days in a cool mountain stream - a classic backpacker move. We also did not realize there was potable water available at a nearby park in town so I filled my bottle up from a waterfall during our first hike...luckily no adverse effects were experienced as a result of that decision. Each evening we were joined by a friendly dinner guest, the local wombat. I could hear it munching away all night outside my tent.
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Campsite on the Yorke Peninsula - nobody and nothing else in sight | | The Grand Canyon (of the Blue Mountains) |
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| Our furry friend in Blackheath |
Once in Sydney we spent our one day running errands and doing a bit of exploring. We made a brief appearance at the infamous Bondi Beach and then made our way downtown to catch a glimpse of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. I spent the afternoon reading in the botanical garden, which overlooks the harbour. Unfortunately I was only able to catch part of the sunset before our parking meter expired. Owning a car is so freeing when traveling but it sure is a pain in the city.
Since being in NZ I've been back to the farm life, but much different than in Australia. The farm has a much smaller number of sheep and cattle, and it is significantly less flat and brown here. Our work here mainly has to do with cleaning up the mess that was created by Cyclone Gabrielle earlier this year. The work itself is not always my favorite but the daily office views certainly help. So far we have been taking down a number of fence lines that were destroyed and doing landscaping. Our hosts, Mike and Susan, do a lot of native restoration on their land, which we have done a lot of planting for. There have been a lot of slips on the hillsides as a result of the cyclone and planting on and around them helps to keep the remaining soil in place.
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| Our backyard |
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| "The office" |
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| Views from Mike & Susan's hot tub, which we do have the pleasure of enjoying on occasion |
The farm is located in an area on the east coast of the north island called Hawke's Bay. The farm sits along the Tuki Tuki river and on warm days we often head down after work to read and have a swim. It is spring here so the weather is all over the place and is often still quite cool and rainy. I'm told it will be trending warmer in the coming weeks which is music to my ears as I haven't experienced the fullness of an Ohio winter for a few years now and have evidently lost all tolerance for the cold.
The rugby world cup as been a big part of our experience in NZ as well. The national team here is the All Blacks and they are consistently ranked quite highly. We've been watching their games over dinner with Mike and Susan which has been a nice weekly get together. This year the All Blacks made it to the finals and played against South Africa in the championship this past weekend. This was a big game because they were 1-1 against each other this year and tied at 3 world championships apiece going into it. For an added bit of fun the farm manager here is South African so there's a clear split among farm staff regarding who's rooting for who. It was a tough game but South Africa ended up on top to the dismay of kiwis everywhere.
Hiking in NZ is referred to as tramping and we've got a few trips coming up in the next few weeks before leaving the farm. Given the numerous inquiries about potential upcoming blog posts prior to this one being released I shall attempt to appease the people and get back to providing slightly more frequent updates, so stay tuned to hear about our tramping trips possibly soon-ish!
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